Top paid US CEO gets $153m, despite company never posting an annual profit

Laura Marcinek, Caleb Melby and Zain Shauk

Charif Souki took home a massive pay packet in 2013, but no one seems to be complaining.

Cheniere Energy's Charif Souki has emerged as the highest paid US executive in 2013, receiving $US142 million ($153 million).

Mr Souki's compensation last year included a $US133 million stock award that vests as his company hits certain financial and operational goals, according to a regulatory filing yesterday from the Houston-based natural-gas exporter, which has never posted an annual profit.

He also received a $US3.68 million cash bonus and a salary of $US800,000, the filing shows.

Mr Souki beat Gamco Investors's Mario Gabelli and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group's James Levin to take the top spot.

The co-founder and chief executive officer of Cheniere becomes the top-paid executive among US-based companies with a fiscal year ending September 1 or later that have filed proxy statements for 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

His $US142 million pay package tops that for Mr Levin, who runs global credit at Och-Ziff and received $US119 million last year, and Mr Gabelli, founder of money-management firm Gamco who was paid $US85 million.

"Whoever came up with the objectives is probably smiling, and everybody who bought into this stock early on, they probably want to hug him," Brent Longnecker, CEO of executive compensation consulting firm Longnecker & Associates, said.

"They aren't worried about his compensation."

'Paid well'

Cheniere has surged 30-fold since November 2009, as executives positioned the company to become the first to export liquefied natural gas produced from the US shale boom. The company has performed more than five times better than the Standard & Poor's 500 Index in the last 12 months as it signed lucrative deals with customers and progressed in constructing its export terminal.

"They're being paid well, but they've done a lot of very good work and created a lot of value at the same time," said Will Frohnhoefer, a special situations equity analyst for BTIG in New York, who rates Cheniere as a buy.

"This is a management team that set a pretty high bar for itself and was able to execute on pretty much every element of it so far, I would say in pretty adverse conditions."

Construction goals

Souki has sold 2.8 million shares of Cheniere since the beginning of 2013, during which time the stock almost tripled, collecting about $US95 million, according to regulatory filings and data compiled by Bloomberg. More than half of the proceeds were used to fulfil tax obligations, the filings show.

"The point of a stock award is to align interests with shareholders," said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "You're supposed to keep it long term. If you're selling it shortly after it's awarded you're losing the point of the whole thing."

Mr Souki's $US133 million stock award, comprised of 6.3 million units, vests depending on construction goals and average Cheniere share prices, according to the company's proxy statement. The company rose 0.7 per cent to close at $US55.95 on Wednesday in New York.